The 2023 Guide to Employee Engagement Survey Analysis

Your employee engagement survey results are in. After weeks of brainstorming survey questions and nudging employees to participate, now it’s time to:

• Make sense of your data
• Derive meaningful insights from the data
• Decide what areas to improve on

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Whether positive or negative, employee engagement surveys provide a treasure trove of information that an organization can use to better engage and motivate its employees.

But surveys are only valuable when you accurately interpret the data. This step requires more than a bird’s view of the data. You’ll need to carefully analyze the data, evaluating both quantitative and qualitative aspects to derive meaningful insights from it.

In this guide, we’ll discuss the importance of employee engagement surveys and share some tips to help you analyze employee engagement survey results.

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What Is Employee Engagement?

Employee engagement can be summarized as the emotional commitment employees have toward an organization and its goals. It’s simply the level of enthusiasm and dedication to work an employee feels towards their job. Engaged employees are productive employees.

According to Gallup^[1], engaged employees outperform less engaged employees by a staggering 147%, hence improving employee engagement is critical to any organization.

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What Is an Employee Engagement Survey?

An employee engagement survey is a questionnaire designed to measure how engaged, committed, and satisfied employees are in their jobs. These surveys measure the degree to which employees feel valued in an organization. They help organizational leaders:

• Uncover employees’ perception of the company
• Make data-driven decisions
• Implement changes that improve the employee experience

Experts agree that employee engagement surveys should be conducted at least once a year. The best employee engagement survey questions should revolve around employee motivation, satisfaction, productivity, and understanding of the organizational goals.

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Importance of Employee Engagement Surveys

Employee engagement surveys are beneficial to a company in many ways. For one, they help quantify engagement.

These surveys measure key drivers of engagement, including satisfaction, motivation, and well-being. Survey results provide organizations with valuable insights that help them solve critical problems such as reducing turnover, improving productivity, and reducing burnout.

Another importance of employee engagement surveys is that they help employees feel heard and valued. This helps build trust and confidence, which boosts engagement and retention.

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Why Is It Important to Conduct Employee Engagement Analysis

Employee engagement surveys gather a lot of information that can be used in decision-making. However, this data is meaningless if it’s not properly analyzed and evaluated.

Learning how employees feel about their role and your company is essential to improving their experience and retention. That said, employees will take note if you conduct surveys but fail to act on the feedback.

In fact, studies have shown^[2] a direct correlation between employee disengagement and employers failing to act on feedback collected through surveys.

Acting on the feedback can help boost employee morale and productivity. Employees feel happy knowing their opinions count and work hard toward achieving the company’s goal. All of this can be achieved through proper analysis of employee engagement survey results.

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Tips for Analyzing Employee Engagement Survey Data

Designing an effective employee survey will make analyzing your survey results easier. Here are some golden tips to help you get the most out of your employee engagement surveys.

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1. Segment Your Data

Analyzing employee engagement survey results becomes easier when you categorize the data collected through employee surveys. You could categorize the data into different employee groups and identify each group’s challenges at work.

For instance, you could segment your employees by:

• Gender
• Roles
• Generation
• Tenure
• Department

This way, you can measure how different groups/teams perform, understand why some perform better than others, and create action plans for the areas that matter most. This can prove helpful, particularly if you have a limited budget and must be selective with your resources.

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2. Identify Patterns and Trends

Look for patterns and trends in your data. It’s striking when 70% of the employees say they aren’t happy with the company’s DEI policies. Maybe not so much when only a few say they want more flexibility in their work.

Some key things to note when identifying patterns and trends include:

• Are the responses consistent across the organization
• Are the responses common among recruits and seasoned staff?
• Are there distinctions between fixed-time employees and hourly staff?

Asking yourself these questions will help you identify distinct trends and groups mostly affected by certain issues.

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3. Supplement Qualitative Data with Qualitative Responses

While numbers are important, finding the story behind those numbers is equally important. This can be achieved by allowing employees to offer open-minded comments in their survey responses. Qualitative data captures employees’ thoughts, attitudes, and motivations.

For example, if an employee is asked to rate their job satisfaction on a scale of 1 – 5 and give a 4, this would indicate they’re generally satisfied with their work.

However, this doesn’t explain why they aren’t 100% satisfied, or rather, why they didn’t give a 5. Open-minded comments will give you genuine feedback that provides insights into what needs to be improved to boost employee experience.

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4. Compare Data with Previous Survey Results

Comparing data with previous results should be an integral part of your analysis process. It helps you gauge how employee responses have changed over time and track progress.

Suppose the feedback in the previous year’s employee engagement survey highlighted toxic workplace culture as one of the reasons for employees’ dissatisfaction with the company.

If the same issue is highlighted in this year’s employee engagement analysis results, this shows no progress. In this case, the company will need to create a friendly work environment lest it may have to contend with high employee turnover rates.

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5. Visualize the Results

Visualizing the data will make it easier for HR professionals, managers, and executives to process, understand, and analyze it. It also makes it easier to derive meaningful insights from the data and identify areas that need improvement.

Data visualization can be achieved through graphs, pie charts, gauges, and colors to bring survey information to life.

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6. Ask Follow-Up Questions

You don’t have to wait until the next employee engagement survey to capture additional employee feedback. Simple follow-up questions are an effective way to get more information about mission-critical topics and show employees their inputs were heard.

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In Conclusion

Your employees deserve to have their voices heard. Employee engagement survey analysis seeks to ensure meaningful data is derived from the feedback, and actions are taken to improve employee experience and foster company growth.

We hope these tips will help you get the most out of your employee engagement survey results. Feel free to comment and share!

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[1] https://www.gallup.com/workplace/229424/employee-engagement.aspx

[2] https://www.contactmonkey.com/blog/cost-of-employee-disengagement